Dana White has said he believes that a lack of ticket sales could be the real reason for the cancellation of Jake Paul and Hasim Rahman Jr’s fight.
YouTube star Paul is 5-0 as a professional boxer and was due to face Tommy Fury, half-brother of WBC heavyweight champion Tyson, at Madison Square Garden in New York City on 6 August. However, the Briton withdrew from the bout due to travel issues, leading Rahman Jr, son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman, to step in.
Paul, 25, announced on Saturday that the fight had been cancelled, as well as the entire card, due to Rahman Jr refusing to cut weight to the contracted limit. Rahman Jr, 31, confirmed that he would not complete his weight-cut but hit out at fellow American Paul for cancelling the bout and event, which was due to feature unified women’s featherweight champion Amanda Serrano.
Paul’s announcement came at the same time that UFC277 was taking place in Dallas, Texas, and UFC president White was asked about Paul vs Rahman Jr’s cancellation during the post-fight press conference.
“I think they sold under $1million in tickets, and it costs $500,000 to turn the f***ing lights on at MSG. That’s what I think,” White said. “Not to mention: Hotel rooms in New York and transportation and everything else is very expensive.
“I’m not going to sit up here and be happy or gloat that their fight fell out. Both those guys, I’m sure, put in a lot of hard work and a lot of training to get ready for this fight, spent money to get ready for this fight.
“I will say this, just because you were an accountant here, doesn’t mean you know what the f*** goes on here,” White added, referencing Paul’s business partner Nakisa Bidarian, a former Chief Financial Officer with the UFC. “It doesn’t mean you can run a fight promotion company.
“I think that Jake Paul probably needs to get some different people around him. If he’s going to stay in the sport, he needs to be with guys that really know how to put on fights.”
Paul’s three most recent fights all came against former UFC stars. In December, Paul knocked out ex-UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, whom he had outpointed last August. Before that, Paul knocked out Woodley’s friend Ben Askren in the first round. Askren had a run in the UFC after holding welterweight titles in rival promotions Bellator and ONE.
